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Robert was protective of Dawn, and when she was dating her first boyfriend, who Robert considered a wally, he saw him off by following them around and imitating his walk.

Robert's business was buying up land at up-and-coming sites on the Spanish coast and selling to developers. In 1986, when developers were sniffing around the area, he bought a petrol station in Alcazar, but was stuck with it when their interests moved down the coast instead. By 1989, he was well on his way to his first million. His success failed to impress his younger sister, who told her boyfriend Mike Baldwin that it had made Robert full of himself. Fearing Robert's affluence at a young age would make Mike feel insecure, Dawn refused to introduce them, but when Robert flew in from Spain and Mike insisted on meeting him, she reluctantly arranged to bring him round for dinner, with Mike volunteering to cook.

As Dawn predicted, dinner was a battle of egos between the businessmen, with Mike patronising Robert by telling him he'd hire him, and Robert demeaning the rag trade. Alone with Dawn, Robert was scathing of Mike and commented on the age gap between them, but at her urging, he apologised to Mike and agreed to make more of an effort. The next day, he invited the pair to dinner at the Midland Hotel where he was staying. Again, the men discussed business, this time talking about how they'd make a million in each other's line of work. Having piqued Mike's interest, to whet his appetite Robert told him about the petrol station in Alcazar, telling him that he was interesting in buying it.

A few weeks later, Robert was invited over to Mike's flat again. Mike had just returned from London but when Robert arrived he told him that, in fact, he'd just been to Spain and bought the petrol station for £150,000. Mike then offered it to Robert for £250,000, noting that it was still a good deal if it would be worth a million in a few years as he'd said. Robert played it cool, calmly dropping his bombshell that Mike had bought the land off him and telling Mike the true story behind it. All pretension was dropped as Mike called Robert a bastard and threw him out, while Robert told Mike to stay in his own league in future.